Building an In-Between Space for Digital Pedagogy

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, new and existing applications of digital technology in higher education have accelerated. Much recent writing around digital pedagogy conceptualises its affordances as aspace rather than a tool. This paper presents a new digital pedagogy project, the Media & Communications Virtual Gallery, and considers how it makes use of those affordances for learning. The project is an online 3D, publicly accessible online gallery that houses a curated selection of student coursework. The objective of the project was to improve student engagement and visibility of student work. The gallery developed as an experiment towards this objective using digital technology in a way that did not simply replicate existing models. This paper elaborates on three key elements of digital space as they play out in the Virtual Gallery: authenticity, provocation, and play. Each element rests on the concept of the virtual as providing an ‘in-between’ zone,acting as both bridge and buffer between student experience inside a higher education institution and the wider world beyond. This small project indicates some promising developments and subjects for further consideration within a rapidly changing pedagogical practice.